So our Mass goes back, without essential change, to the age when it first developed out of the oldest liturgy of all. It is still redolent of that liturgy, of the days when Cæsar ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as to a God. The final result of our enquiry is that, in spite of unsolved problems, in spite of later changes, there is not in Christendom another rite so venerable as ours. ~Fortescue

Sunday, May 29, 2016

“If any
one saith, that, in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship, even external
of latria; and is, consequently, neither to be
venerated with a special festive solemnity, nor to be solemnly borne about in
processions, according to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy
church; or, is not to be proposed publicly to the people to be adored, and
that the adorers thereof are idolaters; let him be anathema”(Canon VI of the Council of Trent
Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist).

Three hundred and forty (340)
faithful attended the 6PM Solemn Mass and Procession at Holy Innocents for the 8th annual celebration
of the Feast of Corpus
Christi this past Thursday, May 26, 2016. Our Pastor Fr. Leonard Villa was the Celebrant of the
Mass, Fr. Tomasz Szczepanczyk was the Deacon, Fr. Robert Rodriguez was the
Subdeacon, and 17 servers devotedly served Holy
Mass.

As was the case in previous years,
Midtown Manhattan, not used to such magnificent Processions and demonstrations
of such active and vibrant faith, seemed to stop and wonder what was going on.
As the Procession went on, the parishioners jubilantly sang beautiful
traditional hymns in Latin, English, Spanish, and Italian. Many passers-by
stopped to see the Procession go by and to take pictures of such a wonderful Catholic
sight; some even joined the Procession!

Members of the Legion of Maryand theCatholic Daughters took part in the Procession. One of the members
of the Regina Coeli Council of the Knights of Columbus
carried the banner of the Blessed Sacrament. Two of
our very young parishioners (a boy and a girl) threw rose petals from the
moment the Procession left the church until it got back to the church. Four men
from The Patrolman’s
Fraternity of St. Michael carried the Canopy over
the Blessed Sacrament as the Procession marched on around Midtown Manhattan. The choir sang the Messa
a tre voci viriliby Giuseppe
Saverio Mercadante in such an unforgettable way that many of the parishioners
expressed that they felt as if “they had died and gone to heaven!”

After the Mass and the Procession, the parishioners enjoyed one of those memorable and,
by now, traditional festive receptions that normally take
place after such solemn Feasts at Holy Innocents.Thanks to the generosity of
those who helped, it was really a very pleasant reception with the omnipresent Carthusian
bottle of green Chartreuse.

Thanks to Mr. Michael Delong, who took
around 600 photos of the entire evening, below you will find some of the
selected photos.